What people with disabilities want from your web site

Safia Abdalla tweeted, "If you have a disability, what’s the hardest thing about browsing the web?" Here are the answers she got via Twitter, with commentary. It should be required reading of every web designer, IMO.

That's an awesome (and slightly maddening) list. As a sometime web dev, I can tell you it's hard to remember to include it, and I understand it's necessity. The nice thing is I'm seeing more and more focus on it.

That's an awesome (and slightly maddening) list. As a sometime web dev, I can tell you it's hard to remember to include it

That's similar to the arguments I hear from nonprofits in response to reasons as to why they have to use social media, and how to use it: it's a maddening list, it's hard to remember to do all this, it's hard to find the time to do it

The reality is that this is a change in mindset. Once you adopt that mindset, you don't have any more trouble remembering it any more than you remember how to post to Facebook.

Edit Aug. 7: I found this quote in this article about the cost of accessible design: If you integrate accessibility into the development process, it becomes a coding routine. Development time won’t increase so much if developers in your team already know what to do.

What's nice about this list is that it includes solutions to the website problems faced by people with disabilities. Many of these solutions should be easy to implement for those responsible for web development and UI/UX design.

"If thinking about Accessibility First is scaring you a bit, let me remind you that we have been here before. Around 2009, is when we first heard about the Mobile Firstconcept. If you remember, when the mobile first approach appeared—where we design/develop for smaller screens first then add more features and content for larger screens—it was a crazy and overwhelming shift in thinking and development workflows. Now it is just part of our daily lives as developers. I am not even sure I could make a website that was not responsive at this point.

"Now in 2017, the Accessibility First concept may seem just as daunting and impossible as Mobile First was years ago—there is so much to know, so many different ideas of what accessibility means, new rules, new tools—but if you have the right tools and attitude, there is hope. I am looking forward to seeing what 2018 brings in the world of website accessibility."

Inclusive Development is really taking that next logical step and adhering to inclusive design principles during the development process. Essentially, it is a shift in the way you approach your thinking about development. So during the development phase, you choose or create code, markup, libraries, and other developmental pieces that are accessible (or as accessible as possible).

In both inclusive design and development, you want to target the users near the top of the pyramid that have severe difficulties (~25% of the population). By making that your target, you will cover all the additional users with little to no difficulties (~74% of the population).

This is essentially a “trickle down” effect for accessibility... Inclusive development means making something valuable, not just accessible, to as many people as we can. It is about putting Accessibility First.

The article discusses the choices designers make regarding accessibility, such as choices for font families, structure, color and contrast, forms and media (including animated gifs and videos).